Fully or highly automated, e.g. autonomous or self-driven, driving systems are designed to operate a vehicle on the road either without or with low levels of driver interaction or other external controls. Autonomous driving systems require certainty in the position of and distance to geographic features surrounding the vehicle with a sufficient degree of accuracy to adequately control the vehicle. Details about the road or other geographic features surrounding the vehicle can be recorded on a detailed virtual map. The more accurate the detailed virtual map, the better the performance of the autonomous driving system. Existing virtual maps do not include sufficient or sufficiently accurate geographic feature details for optimized autonomous operation.
Autonomous driving systems can also be programmed to follow transition rules, or traffic operation rules, associated with a traffic intersection when localized to (exactly positioned in respect to) the traffic intersection. Though an autonomous driving system can recognize and implement some transition rules by observing traffic signals along the a navigation route of the autonomous vehicle, information related to additional traffic signals and the associated actions of other vehicles within the traffic intersection can improve the performance of the autonomous driving system.